This was a pretty good book, but I can't say it had any real blog-worthy material for me. This list of books was originally supposed to be 52 classics, then it became 52 books everyone must read, this falls into neither category for me. It's too modern to be a classic, there are no eye-opening revelations or earth-shattering discoveries in it, and there's nothing of its kind to compare it to like I did with "The Sisters Grimm."
I suppose this book might reveal a lot to people currently unaware of the fact that smoking is bad for you, but with all of the warnings and anti-drug programs these days it's safe to assume that there is nobody in a part of the world that has cigarettes to smoke that is unaware of that fact.
I've spent the last 40 minutes trying to think of something to write here, but I'm still coming up blank. I suppose I can link the behavior of the tobacco companies to the "revelation" about how corrupt the rich in the USA are, though I'm sure everyone knew about that before recent events, but now the rich are in a position of unlimited power and people are trying to save their skins because they were too complacent before when things could be solved without nation-wide protests.
Now that I have thought of that comparison, I am realizing just how similar the corruption in the book and the corruption we're putting up with are alike. The tobacco companies were perfectly aware they were selling poison and were killing people by the millions, and yet they incessantly tried to deny the fact and continued to advertise smoking to kids, all for the sake of making money. It really is sick how companies already rolling in wealth would go so far as to ruin the lives of children in order to make more, and that's what the rich are doing today. Using their "influence" in politics (a.k.a. pretty much complete control), the top 2% of the nation have been getting grafts, putting down protests, and steadily passing laws to nullify our constitutional rights.
Case in point, these are just two things I've personally noticed that positively reek of corruption.
-Occupy Wall Street was a peaceful protest, the type protected by the constitution, the government's response? Send in police to trap all the protesters in the parks they occupied and have them beat with batons while they were unable to leave. So the moment we protest against the rich being corrupt we apparently are not allowed to have peaceful protests anymore, that right only applies if we shut up and behave while the rich steal all of the country's money...
-The Patriot Acts issue, the amount of corruption here is revolting, these acts violate 6 of our rights either directly or indirectly, and the method by which they got passed is about as underhanded as you can get. First, the acts were slipped in to the military budget so as to avoid notice and to practically guarantee their being passed. Then it was claimed that the acts could only be used on non-citizens suspected of terrorist activities, but that claim was quickly proven false. Since the bill can be used to target regular citizens as well, and it gave the government unlimited power to arrest anyone they disliked for life without any evidence or trial, there was a huge uproar of protest. In response to this the president promised to use his veto on the acts, but while everyone was distracted with New Year's Eve celebrations the president signed the acts with a promise that they would never be used on American citizens, a promise that is not legally binding, and even if Obama intends to keep it (and who trusts a politician's promise?) the next president will not be bound by it.
For those who don't know, the acts I'm speaking of give the military the power to arrest any person they suspect of being involved with terrorist groups and detain them until the "end of the war on terrorism" without giving any evidence or a trial. The claimed intention of the bill is to let terrorists be arrested without warrants so that their plans don't have time to be executed. The effect is that the government can now arrest anyone they want, whenever they want, and that person will never be seen or heard from again. Which means anyone who protests against the corrupt activities of the government can now be silenced simply by dubbing them terrorists.
Wow I went overboard there, I didn't intend to drag on that long on that single topic, but the Patriot acts really make my blood boil. With those acts our right to free speech, right to bear arms, right to a trial, right to not be arrested without reasonable doubt, and more are all violated. We can't speak freely for fear of being dubbed a terrorist because we disagree with the corruption. We can't bear arms cause that might be enough to "justify" calling us terrorists who plan to use those weapons in an attack, it seems ridiculous, but that is the amount of power the government has now.
Back on the topic of the book... actually other than comparing the corruption in the book to corruption in real life I still can't think of anything... I suppose that it's time for me to wrap things up now, because if I get started on all the things the government does that make me angry again I'll be here for hours and I'm gonna be in a foul mood all day, and the second part of that might already be too late to avoid...
Anyway, that's it for this book, sorry if my government talk upsets you, it upsets me too, so I'll try and refrain from any more of it in my next blog posts unless it really fits, and I'll try and keep it in check then. So until next time, farewell!
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